Faster than a speeding Google

Thirteen inches!?!

Because the Internet is gigantic, and getting huger every day, Googling is actually, almost unbelievably, getting more difficult. There's so much crap out there now; Web sites like the community news forum Associated Content cram their "article" headlines with keywords and hot-topic word bait that tricks search-engine crawlers and spiders, boosting bunk results to the top of your search-hits list. It can be frustrating to parse the ad-heavy, bogus sites for, say, a legitimate credit consolidation agency or trustworthy hair-removal services or weight-loss centers. Those are frequently-searched-for things, and there's a ton of information about them on the Web. The paradox is that, though there's a lot of information about them and people search for that information constantly, they're the hardest topics to find good information for. To combat this problem, you can use any number of what are called "human search engines."

HSEs employ people to sort data and weed out the bad, junky sites from common (or, depending on the size of the HSE, even uncommon) Web queries.

Some HSEs are complex — DMOZ, begun in 1999, is an open-source search function that requires some insider-tech background to use effectively. There are small-scale HSEs started by Google-inspired young designers and tech heads. Bryan Hadaway, a 23-year-old Washington-state-based Web designer, is the creator of the nearly year-old hengine.org, a small database with limited information, but Hadaway told me in an interview he's eager to expand.

"We're centuries away from [being] Google," Hadaway said in a recent IM chat session. (Hadaway says he's "not big on phone interviews.") Hengine is a start-up HSE that Hadaway hopes more and more people will contribute to, loading his database with good, clean, reliable data. He wants to expand Hengine to become the "people's search engine."

There are other HSEs out there that are bulkier and/or more you-and-me friendly. It's likely you've already been using them, or at least seen ads for them.

ChaCha and what's called _kgb are the most popular HSEs, known primarily for their text service. Text message them (ChaCha, in textspeak, is 242242 — that spells ChaCha on your phone; _kgb is 542542) any question you want and they'll send you an answer within a minute or two. Because ChaCha's free, they also send you a little advertisement, which is totally worth it. Also because it's free, ChaCha will cut your ass off after an indeterminate number of questions, which can be a bummer when, for instance, you're arguing with someone at a bar about the best time to grow tomatoes. So _kgb, which charges you $1 per question, is a good back-up if you're desperate enough to pay. But that's a handy alternative to paying the increased cost of Internet access on your cell phone.

But more than saving you the cost of having access to Google, these search functions also help you find answers to your questions quickly and easily. If I were to Google "When's the best time to grow tomatoes?," I might get a Yahoo! answer, or the tomato Wiki page, or some tomato fan site, where information isn't always accurate, or I might have to scan as much as an entire page before I find my answer. The human search engine saves me all of that headache (with a few exceptions to accuracy).

Chris Brown, president of ChaCha, told me in an interview that the company's goal is to be reliable and informative, and also personable.

"ChaCha's got a personality to it," he said. "The agents do a great job of being fun and interactive. The service is as entertaining as it is informative." (Bonus fact: ChaCha was begun by Scott Jones, who, like, invented voicemail.)

Elizabeth Diamond-Lessard, of Litchfield, N.H., has worked as a "guide," answering people's questions, for ChaCha since it launched in September 2006. It's perfect for her, a mother of three young boys, as a work-from-home job that brings in between $7,000 and $10,000 a year. Plus, she gets to learn all sorts of things, she told me in a recent phone interview.

Diamond-Lessard said most of her questions are about relationships or for "411 stuff," like phone numbers for local restaurants and things. But she said she's been asked all kinds of crazy questions.

"There are a lot of penis questions," she said. "The biggest penis on a person is 13 and a half inches. Jonah Falcon. Poor guy."

Questions or comments? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Share this story:
Facebook |Twitter |Digg |Reddit |Stumbleupon

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."